He suggested that because it is a community-owned hospital, Sarasota Memorial should not be allowed to operate a facility that potentially competes with Venice Regional and established physician practices in the community.

As chairman of the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board, I must respectfully disagree. I'd like to clarify some misconceptions presented by Dr. Gonzalez and share three important community benefits driving our outreach in Venice.

1. Greater choice equates to better access and higher quality care.

Sarasota Memorial has been considering outreach plans in Venice for several years. While we recognize there is a core group of physicians who feel Venice Regional offers sufficient care for the community, we also are mindful of the many physicians and patients who prefer Sarasota Memorial and its broader continuum of care.

Last year, we had more than 100,000 inpatient, outpatient and emergency-room patient visits from people who live in Venice and south Sarasota County. We also serve an additional 18,000-plus south county residents who have chosen Sarasota Memorial's First Physicians Group for their primary care, including four physicians at First Physicians Lakeside Medical Group in Venice.

As Sarasota County's only public, not-for-profit hospital, we are accountable to and here to serve the entire county, and it's important to note that nearly half (44 percent) of the county's population lives south of Osprey. Besides our four Venice physicians, we have no centers between Blackburn Point (Osprey) and our free-standing ER/outpatient center in North Port. Our urgent care clinic will provide an important access point for those in Venice who choose us for their care.

Urgent care clinics fill an important gap between primary care practices and emergency rooms. Our clinics provide quick, high-quality care for people with immediate but nonemergency conditions -- such as ear infections, sprains, lacerations or minor burns. The urgent care physicians serve a vital role when people cannot get a same-day appointment with their regular doctor, or they need after-hours care. Our clinics are open evenings, weekends and holidays for just that purpose.

Approximately 35 percent of the visits to our urgent care clinics involve mildly sick or injured children, which is significant since Venice has no inpatient pediatric unit for children sick enough to require hospitalization. Contrary to what's been presented, urgent care clinics are designed to keep people out of the hospital and higher-cost health care settings. Indeed, less than 1 percent of the people cared for in our urgent care clinics require hospitalization or further emergency care. In cases where patients may require more advanced care, they get to choose the hospital or specialist they want to provide that care.

3. Tax dollars do not subsidize our urgent care centers.

Rather, they help sustain essential safety-net services that Venice Regional and other for-profits do not provide. As the region's only safety-net hospital, Sarasota Memorial cares for the lion's share of the uninsured and underinsured in our community. Last year, Sarasota Memorial's charity care, community programs and bad debt write-offs topped $100 million, while we received roughly $44 million in tax support. This year, taxes make up about 6 percent of our total annual revenue, which would cover just 26 days of expenses.

No tax dollars will be used to build the clinic in Venice. Instead, profits generated from our urgent care clinics and outpatient centers help support unprofitable "mission" services that no other hospital in the county provides -- essential services such as obstetrical care and maternity units, a dedicated pediatric unit, a neonatal intensive-care unit for premature and critically ill newborns and inpatient psychiatric care for people of all ages.

In conclusion, we think there's a desire and need for us in Venice.

While it is true Sarasota Memorial is one of the nation's largest public hospitals (and consistently ranked among America's best), we are not part of a large corporate chain. We are a stand-alone hospital accountable to local citizens, not shareholders, with a comprehensive network of services and an unwavering public mission: to deliver the best health care possible to the people of our community.

Our strengths and success are due in large part to the caliber and dedication of our doctors and care-givers, the commitment of a publicly elected hospital board to reinvest all of our earnings into advanced services and technology that benefit our community and, perhaps most important, the hundreds of thousands of people who choose us for their care.

Richard "Dick" Merritt is chairman of the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board.

<p>In a recent guest column, Venice Regional Medical Center's immediate past chief of staff, Julio Gonzalez, M.D., criticized Sarasota Memorial Hospital and the Hospital Board for moving ahead with plans to build an urgent care clinic on the Venice Bypass.</p><p>He suggested that because it is a community-owned hospital, Sarasota Memorial should not be allowed to operate a facility that potentially competes with Venice Regional and established physician practices in the community.</p><p>As chairman of the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board, I must respectfully disagree. I'd like to clarify some misconceptions presented by Dr. Gonzalez and share three important community benefits driving our outreach in Venice.</p><p>1. Greater choice equates to better access and higher quality care.</p><p>Sarasota Memorial has been considering outreach plans in Venice for several years. While we recognize there is a core group of physicians who feel Venice Regional offers sufficient care for the community, we also are mindful of the many physicians and patients who prefer Sarasota Memorial and its broader continuum of care.</p><p>Last year, we had more than 100,000 inpatient, outpatient and emergency-room patient visits from people who live in Venice and south Sarasota County. We also serve an additional 18,000-plus south county residents who have chosen Sarasota Memorial's First Physicians Group for their primary care, including four physicians at First Physicians Lakeside Medical Group in Venice.</p><p>As Sarasota County's only public, not-for-profit hospital, we are accountable to and here to serve the entire county, and it's important to note that nearly half (44 percent) of the county's population lives south of Osprey. Besides our four Venice physicians, we have no centers between Blackburn Point (Osprey) and our free-standing ER/outpatient center in North Port. Our urgent care clinic will provide an important access point for those in Venice who choose us for their care.</p><p>2. Urgent care clinics provide an immediate, lower-cost alternative to emergency care.</p><p>Urgent care clinics fill an important gap between primary care practices and emergency rooms. Our clinics provide quick, high-quality care for people with immediate but nonemergency conditions -- such as ear infections, sprains, lacerations or minor burns. The urgent care physicians serve a vital role when people cannot get a same-day appointment with their regular doctor, or they need after-hours care. Our clinics are open evenings, weekends and holidays for just that purpose.</p><p>Approximately 35 percent of the visits to our urgent care clinics involve mildly sick or injured children, which is significant since Venice has no inpatient pediatric unit for children sick enough to require hospitalization. Contrary to what's been presented, urgent care clinics are designed to keep people out of the hospital and higher-cost health care settings. Indeed, less than 1 percent of the people cared for in our urgent care clinics require hospitalization or further emergency care. In cases where patients may require more advanced care, they get to choose the hospital or specialist they want to provide that care.</p><p>3. Tax dollars do not subsidize our urgent care centers.</p><p>Rather, they help sustain essential safety-net services that Venice Regional and other for-profits do not provide. As the region's only safety-net hospital, Sarasota Memorial cares for the lion's share of the uninsured and underinsured in our community. Last year, Sarasota Memorial's charity care, community programs and bad debt write-offs topped $100 million, while we received roughly $44 million in tax support. This year, taxes make up about 6 percent of our total annual revenue, which would cover just 26 days of expenses.</p><p>No tax dollars will be used to build the clinic in Venice. Instead, profits generated from our urgent care clinics and outpatient centers help support unprofitable "mission" services that no other hospital in the county provides -- essential services such as obstetrical care and maternity units, a dedicated pediatric unit, a neonatal intensive-care unit for premature and critically ill newborns and inpatient psychiatric care for people of all ages.</p><p>In conclusion, we think there's a desire and need for us in Venice.</p><p>While it is true Sarasota Memorial is one of the nation's largest public hospitals (and consistently ranked among America's best), we are not part of a large corporate chain. We are a stand-alone hospital accountable to local citizens, not shareholders, with a comprehensive network of services and an unwavering public mission: to deliver the best health care possible to the people of our community.</p><p>Our strengths and success are due in large part to the caliber and dedication of our doctors and care-givers, the commitment of a publicly elected hospital board to reinvest all of our earnings into advanced services and technology that benefit our community and, perhaps most important, the hundreds of thousands of people who choose us for their care.</p><p>Richard "Dick" Merritt is chairman of the Sarasota County Public Hospital Board.</p>